Cold start, hot pace for Crazyman

MICHAEL KOPP/Hutt News

DUCK WEATHER: Nicole Swain leads a pack of mountain bike riders through the sleet and mud during Sunday's Crazyman multisport event.

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It wasn't a big-win day for Hutt multisporters - unless you count just finishing a gruelling 48 or 66km paddling, pedaling and running race as a big win. And it is.

But Hutt endurance athletes did come away with a respectable showing in last Saturday's 18th Crazyman endurance triathlon and duathlon, mostly in the running and biking sections, with no standouts in the kayaking.

The race was fast becoming annually monotonous in the open multisport category, but the women's open  turned into an unexpectedly surprising duel between two women who weren't expected to win, but had a lucky shot at it.

Richard Ussher, the now-internationally famous former Hutt High School student who began his multisport and adventure career in the Crazyman, comfortably took his third Crazyman title in a row, with a time of 5hrs 19min 31secs.

Ussher's partner, Elina Ussher, favoured to win the women's title, never had a chance however, sitting out the race due to illness. That left number two pick and world title runner-up Fleur Pawsey to fend off a dark horse challenger for the women's title, Katrine Lawton.

Rotorua firefighter Lawton (5hrs 19min 31secs) overcame Pawsey (5hrs 56min 39secs) and is said to be looking like maybe the next big thing on the women's scene. Pawsey may have been affected by a heavy race schedule since she finished second in the world coast-to-coast in February.

Former Lower Hutt resident Jo Holden, Police Search and Rescue co-ordinator in Wellington, came third in the women's individual mutltisport class, a very creditable showing for one over 50 years old running in a general category rather than a masters for that age group.

Nicole Swain was the only one of the five members of Normandale's Swain family who look to finish in the money, coming third in the individual women's duathlon. Jacinda and her dad, Phil; mother Anne and teammate Dave Stacey; daughter Aimee and her teammate Anthony Lummis, all finished down in the pack.

Upper Hutt mountain biker Gavin McCarthy turned in the fastest time on the 36 km Eastern Hutt hills and Hutt River trail course. He was partner in a VIC Cycles Duathlon team with Wainuiomata runner Jordan Blake.

VIC Cycles' Old Boys team won the multisport veterans class for those truly amazing athletes over 50. Garth McIntyre was the paddler, Ian McFarlane was the runner, and Matt Farrar was on the mountain bike.

Lower Hutt accountant Marco Renalli took the top slot in the master men's over-50 individual duathlon.

A surprise entrant was Jason Brown of Maungaraki, who won the Crazyman in 1996, when it was a two-day event, but hasn't been back often since then. He said he had done an ironman race in March, and his wife told him he had put on 10 kg since then. But he said the Crazyman was "just a fun day for me, since I can't do as much training as it needs - my wife wants a husband and father."

Nearly 450 people - including Mayor David Ogden, who is almost getting to be a professional runner after a long marathon career and 18 years in politics leading a team of city stalwarts - took on the kayaking, mountain running and mountain biking course that has become one of the three premier endurance races in the country. Ogden anchored the running segment.

Ogden's team did come away with one prize: Best Team Name. Organiser Michael Jacques, in giving out the awards, said the entries were "quite pathetic". But Ogden's  - Inconvenient Ones - stood out.

The weather - often inconvenient, and called lots of names - held until noon, with only a gentle breeze coming up the harbour for the kayaking section which began at 8 am at the West end of Petone foreshore and ended at Eastbourne pier. But by the time the last of the kayakers were headed down the Eastbourn shore, it began kicking up. And by the mid-point of the mountain-biking leg up from Parkway in Wainuiomata along the ridgelines to Stokes Valley it became quite cold and gusty above 300 m, and rain occasionally turned to hail.

While school teams performed pretty well, only a few won events. Race organiser Michael Jacques joked at the prize-giving about the youth whose chain broke at the top of the mountains. He had come prepared, Jacques said: he rang his team support crew on his cell phone and told them to come and get him. Why? Jacques said it was simple: he hadn't brought a chain toolkit.

Several other people suffered breakdowns, another chap we found on the ridge also not having a clue how to fix a derailled chain, much less any tools for the job. A passing female rider looked at him in disdain, but a few minutes later a good samaritan stopped and fixed the bike for him. Other riders lost their brakes, and ran their bikes down the now-slippery slopes.

Michael Jacques said for Ussher it was an impressive catch-me-if-you-can performance, leaving behind a quality lineup including former worlds title runner-up Neil Gellatly and up and top Aussie Jarad Kohlar "wondering what they have to do to beat the world number one".

Ussher broke out ahead in the 12-km kayak leg across the harbour against the growing southerly swell, landing in Eastbourne with a two-minute lead on a chase pack that included Kohlar, Gellatly and New Plymouth's Anthony Roebuck.

He appeared to like the slippery harbour hill run and added another three minutes to his lead. He fell behind VIC's Gavin McCarthy on the mountain biking leg, but only by a few minutes, a remarkable performance given he had two punctures.

Female winner Lawton surprised her competition and spectators alike by opening up a three minute lead on Pawsey in the opening kayak leg. But surprisingly Pawsey fell behind in her specialist run section, which saw Lawton start her specialist mountain bike section with an unassailable six-minute lead. Lawton may have turned in the most surprising performance of the day: the mountain bike specialist was expected to take that leg - but no one would have imagined a 27-minute winning margin.

In other highlights of the race, former New Zealand duathlon rep Dave Rowlands held off New Zealand mountain bike rep Mark Leishman in the mountain bike duathlon option to break his own course record with 3hrs 10min 11secs. Leishman's partner Nic Leary made it a good day for their Palmerston North household by winning the woman's duathlon in 3hrs 51min 52secs.

Next year's 19th annual HuttValleyNZ.com Crazyman is marked down for Saturday 2 May, 2009. For details see: www.crazyman.co.nz.